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Monday, September 13, 2010

ART AS COMMUNICATION

This exhibit at Ramapo College is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before! Color bursts from the white walls of the Kresge Gallery from canvases stacked deep against the walls and covering the floor. Everything seems to be moving. This is a must-see exhibit of alternative art.

ALEX MASKET: A VIEW WITH A ROOM

alex masket ramapo WHEN: through October 6, 1–5 PM Tuesdays ,Thursdays and Fridays; until 7 PM Wednesdays. Reception October 6 at 5 PM
WHERE:
Kresge Gallery in the Berrie Center, Ramapo College of New Jersey, 505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah.
FREE

Sydney Jenkins, director of art galleries at Ramapo, describes the art produced by Alex Masket as “a riot of color.” Alex alex masket 1Masket, the artist who produced these extraordinary canvases, is 23 years old. He is completely self-taught. He has severe autism and is functionally nonverbal—with a vocabulary of perhaps 50 words—but he communicates through sounds, facial expressions. . . and his art.

Alex uses paint markers, colored duct tape and stickers of numbers and masket bedroom letters to create patterns. When Alex’s brother Will gave him a box of colored duct tape, Alex used it to cover the walls of his bedroom. When the family moved from Westfield to Westchester, a realtor told the Maskets that they would have to take down the tape in order for the house to sell. Instead, they dismantled the entire room; it has been rebuilt for the exhibition!

This exhibit at Ramapo is Alex’s fifth solo show and he has three others scheduled for this fall. The Ramapo exhibit is co-sponsored by the college’s Office of Specialized services and is presented to recognize Disabilities Awareness Month. Running along with the show is a documentary, Breaking Boundaries: The Art of Alex Masket.